


Big Mistakes Can Lead to Small Things

by wyomingparmesan



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Birthday, Emilie is not as good as everyone thinks, F/M, Family Feels, Gabriel tries to be a good father, I apologize in advance if this makes anyone cry, Peacock Miraculous, Pregnancy, Premature Birth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:00:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29528169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wyomingparmesan/pseuds/wyomingparmesan
Summary: Gabriel wishes his wife weren’t so stubborn. Maybe then, their first time meeting their son would’ve been different. One shot.
Relationships: Emilie Agreste & Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	Big Mistakes Can Lead to Small Things

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone, I am back with this little one shot. This was an idea I had based on a headcanon that involves Emilie using the peacock miraculous. That is all I will say because I don’t want to spoil anything. Enjoy!

He had tried to warn her. He wished she had listened to what the doctor had told them. If she hadn’t been so stubborn, then maybe they wouldn’t be in their current situation. 

Gabriel Agreste sat in the dimly lit hospital room. The chairs they had provided were less than ideal in terms of comfort, but that didn’t matter much to him. All he cared about was being by his wife’s bedside. 

It was nearly three in the morning. They had her hooked up to so many machines that he couldn’t sleep without one of them waking him up with a strange noise. He looked on at her as she somehow managed to sleep peacefully. 

Her disheveled blonde hair clung to her sweaty forehead, to which he reached out and swept a piece behind her ear. His eyes darted to her swollen stomach, which was now covered with a fetal monitor. 

It brought tears to his eyes. Of all the times Emilie could be stubborn, this one was the worst. Despite warnings from both himself and the doctors, she just wouldn't listen.

In an effort to distract himself, he leaned back and closed his eyes. Hopefully, a bit of sleep would calm his nerves.

* * *

_ Emilie laid back in her bed, the sudden feeling of dizziness finally beginning to dissipate. As if on instinct, she placed a hand on her belly, breathing a sigh of relief when small kicks came from within.  _

_ She turned to her right to see her husband kneeling next to her, a worried look on his face. “Is everything alright?”, she asked innocently.  _

_ Gabriel grabbed his hand in hers. “No, no it's not,” his usual monotone voice was filled with slight panic. “I've told you to please stop using that miraculous.” He grabbed one of her hands in his own, gently squeezing it. “It’s broken and we don't know all the possible effects it may have on you.” _

_ She smiled at him, that same smile that she knew made him instantly melt. “Oh, I'll be alright,” she tried to reassure him, but to no avail.  _

_ He shook his head. “It’s one thing to put your  _ **_own_ ** _ health at risk,” he placed a hand on her baby bump, gently stroking it. “But you could be harming our baby.” His voice became watery as tears poked at his eyes. “We don’t know what it might be doing to them.” _

_ Emilie followed his gesture by placing her hand on top of his and gently played with his fingers. “If this baby is anything like their father, then they’re strong,” she giggled when the baby kicked at their hands. “Don't worry yourself ragged, mon cher.” She reached out and caressed his face. “Everything will be okay.” _

* * *

“Mr. Agreste.”

Gabriel opened his eyes to see the doctor standing before him. He cleared his throat before speaking. “Ahem, yes?”, his eyes met the doctor's worried expression. “Is everything alright?”

“It’s hard to say,” she said. “Can I talk to you out in the hall?”

He caught a glimpse of his sleeping wife before looking back to the doctor. “Certainly.” Before leaving the room, he picked up one of Emilie’s hands and kissed it gently. “I’ll be back soon, my love.”

The urge to panic was rising as he followed the doctor out into the hallway. She looked nervously at her clipboard as their eyes met. 

“I’m trying to think of the easiest way to say this,” she said before sighing. “But, we may need to take the baby early.”

At that moment, Gabriel felt as though his heart dropped into his knees. “What? Why?”, he looked through the glass window, seeing that his wife was beginning to stir. 

The doctor flipped a page on her clipboard, looking down at it as she spoke. “We have been monitoring both your wife and child and it seems that your wife came in with high blood pressure,” she said plainly. “This could lead to a more serious condition called Preeclampsia, which could kill both of them if not treated.”

All feeling escaped from his fingers and toes. Someone could’ve easily knocked him over with how bad his legs were shaking. “But, the baby isn’t due for another two months,” a lump formed in his throat, making it hard to speak. “Is there any way we can keep them inside for just a bit longer?”

She shook her head. “The fetus has shown signs of distress,” she looked through her charts. “Their heart rate is dangerously low and they aren’t responding well to the medication we’ve given to your wife.” She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Agreste. I wish there was more we could do for the both of them.”

The tears that had been poking at his eyes threatened to spill over. How...How could she have been so reckless? Why didn’t he try to stop her sooner? The guilt ran heavy through his mind. “S-Should I tell her?”, he asked with a shaky voice. 

“I will brief her about it shortly,” she said. “A nurse will be in soon to prep her for an emergency c-section.” She shot him a small, hopeful smile before heading back into the room. “You’re going to be a father soon, Mr. Agreste.”

* * *

Gabriel now sat by Emilie’s head as they pulled a blue sheet over her. A screen was hung up in front of their faces so that neither of them could see what was going on behind it. 

An oxygen cannula hung inside of her nose as she looked over to her husband. “I’m scared, Gabe,” she whispered to him.

He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the doctor coating her bare stomach in a black liquid. As soon as they pulled out a scalpel, he turned and looked back at her. “It will be okay, my love,” he kissed her hair gently. “Just try to think about the baby.”

Despite everything going on in that moment, he knew he had to be strong for her. Neither of them would’ve ever imagined that this was how they would be bringing their child into the world, but there was no stopping it now. 

Emilie closed her eyes as she felt pressure in her lower half. Lots of pulling and tugging was being done as they tried to reach the baby. 

After around twenty or so minutes, the sound of a small cry filled the room. 

“It’s a boy,” the doctor called out proudly as she held the small baby in her arms. The new parents got nothing more than a small glimpse of their son before he was whisked away by a few nurses. 

Both of them shed tears as they watched their baby being taken away to a small corner of the room. 

“Gabriel,” Emilie looked at him with tears in her eyes. “Look at our little baby boy over there.” She tried to smile as he gave her a peck on the cheek. “That’s our son.”

A bittersweet feeling came over him as he tried to catch another glimpse of the small infant. A nurse noticed him looking and ushered for him to come over. “I’ll be right back,” he told his wife before getting up and walking over to where their baby was. 

_ Oh mon dieu _

It was hard to keep the tears from shedding as his eyes locked onto his son. The infant was tiny, his pink skin nearly translucent through the bright light shining on him. His small cries lasted only a moment before he was placed in another machine and quickly hooked onto a ventilator. “What is that?”, Gabriel asked them in a shaky voice. 

“This is an incubator,” one of the nurses told him. “Your son still requires medical attention since he won’t be able to eat or breathe on his own for a few weeks.” She gave him a bright smile as she noticed his furrowed brows. “Don’t worry, we deal with babies like this all the time. We’ll take good care of him. You stay with your wife while she recovers and the two of you can come see this little one over in the NICU later on.”

Gabriel stepped closer and got a good glimpse of the small baby from inside the incubator. It was strange to see a baby being so quiet, but it was somehow refreshing to know he would be well taken care of. “Alright, I trust you ladies with his life, I hope you know that,” he stepped back and gave them a small smile, to which they nodded. 

“Your son is safe with us, believe me,” one of them said. “The fact that he came out crying is a good sign already.”

They parted ways as the nurses took the baby down to the NICU and he went back to sit with Emilie while she was being sewn up.

Her eyes perked up as he sat down next to her head. “Did you see the baby? How is he?”, her voice sounded optimistic, which made his heart flutter. 

“I did,” it took everything in him not to get choked up again. “He’s so small, Emilie, but he didn’t stop crying until they hooked him up to a breathing machine.” He wiped away the tears that came from the corners of her eyes. “We can go see him later once you’ve recovered from surgery.”

She grabbed onto his arm, closing her eyes as she began to cry. “Gabriel, I...I’m so sorry,” her voice was shaky as she spoke through her tears. “If I had just listened to you then maybe-“.

He cut her off by placing a finger to her lips. “Shh, we can talk about all of that later,” he told her as he ran his fingers through her blonde hair. “Let’s just focus on getting you out of this operating room.”

Emilie nodded, trying to form a smile despite the sudden wave of guilt and grief that flushed over her. “Okay.”

* * *

About an hour had passed before a doctor came into Emilie’s room to brief them on the condition of their baby. 

Emilie tried to sit up despite the pain in her lower abdomen preventing her from doing so. Gabriel rushed over to her side and placed a pillow behind her back. 

“Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Agreste,” the doctor smiled at the both of them as she closed the door behind her. “How are you feeling, Emilie?”

“Horrible, if I must be completely honest,” she still tried to smile, despite the shooting pain in her stomach. “How is my baby?”

“Well, that is exactly what I came in here to talk to you two about,” the doctor pulled out her clipboard and flipped to a page. “Before I give you all the details, though, I do have one question.” 

The new parents looked up at her, expectantly.

“Do you have a name picked out for the little guy, yet?”, she asked them. 

Gabriel and Emilie looked at each other before shrugging and looking back at the doctor. “I mean, we had discussed a few names we both liked for both a boy or a girl,” Emilie explained. “But we thought we still had time to decide on one.”

“That’s perfectly fine,” she told them. “Perhaps spending a little time with him will help you decide on one.” She gave them a sweet smile before looking back down at her clipboard. “As for everything else, I can tell you that he is perfectly healthy despite being born at only thirty weeks. He weighs about four pounds, which is much bigger than we normally see for babies of his age. He has lungs, but they’re not yet fully functional, so he will need to be on a ventilator for a few more weeks. He also can’t eat on his own just yet, so we have him on a feeding tube.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful,” Emilie said as she wiped her face once again. “Do you hear that, Gabe? He’s fine!”

Gabriel looked at her, trying to form a smile despite the negative thoughts that still ran around in his mind. “It is wonderful,” he finally said. “When can we see him?”

“Anytime you’d like, so long as Mama here is feeling up to it,” the doctor told them. 

“Can we go now? Please?”, Emilie sat up quickly before leaning over in pain. “Sorry, got too excited.”

“Yes, we can take you there in your bed since it’s probably very hard for you to move right now,” she said. “Just, please take it easy. You only had surgery a little over an hour ago.”

Once a nurse came in and successfully unhooked Emilie’s bed, the couple found themselves making a small trip to the NICU down at the end of the hallway. 

Gabriel walked in first, taking in the atmosphere. There were only a few other babies inside of the unit, so it was very quiet and peaceful. The nurse brought them to an incubator on the other side of the room and stopped Emilie’s bed in front of it. 

“Here he is, your little guy,” the nurse said as she stood in front of the incubator. “We have him as ‘Baby Boy Agreste’ for now.” She opened up the small door of the incubator and stuck a hand inside. “You can’t hold him just yet, but you can touch him all you want.”

Emilie looked at her husband, who nodded at her. “I got to see him already, you go ahead,” he told her. She took a closer look at their son and it took everything in her now to start bawling again. 

Looking inside of the machine was disheartening. Their son was hooked to so many wires and had tubes coming out of both his nose and mouth. His little eyes were covered with a mask to shield him from the bright light. 

She stuck one of her hands through the small door of the incubator and was immediately met with a small hand gripping one of her fingers. A watery smile made its way onto her lips as she looked over at Gabriel. “See? Remember what I told you a few weeks ago?”, she looked back at the small baby who had a tight grip on her finger. “He’s a strong little boy, our little Adrien.”

Gabriel’s eyes widened. “What did you just say?”

“Adrien, that’s what I want to call him,” she used her thumb to caress his tiny hand. “Adrien Agreste.”

“Adrien…”, he let that name roll off of his tongue. He went to stand next to his wife, who generously took out her hand so that he could replace it with one of his own.

Just as he had done with his mother, Adrien stuck out a little fist and grabbed ahold of his father’s finger. It filled Gabriel with a sense of warmth as he looked on at the small bundle who was a lot stronger than he looked.

“Adrien,” Gabriel said plainly. “I’m happy to have you as my son.”

* * *

Gabriel Agreste normally wasn’t one to get overly emotional. He could deal with his wife’s many mood swings and his son’s temper tantrums without even getting so much as a headache. However, there were only two days of the year that never failed to strike a chord within his heart. 

Looking up at the portrait of his wife reminded him of one of the most difficult times in their lives. Now that she was no longer there to share it with him, he was forced to go through those emotions all alone. 

“Sir.”

His attention was taken as his assistant spoke up from the doorway. “What is it, Nathalie?”

“Adrien is requesting your presence at dinner tonight, sir,” she said in her usual monotone voice. “He says it would make him very happy if you could eat with him for once.”

The man managed to crack a small smile. “Tell him I’ll be there,” he said. “It’s the least I can do for him on his special day.”

Nathalie nodded. “Of course, sir.”

An hour passed and Gabriel found himself standing at the entrance of the dining room. Adrien was already seated at the end of the table, looking down solemnly at his plate.

Gabriel slowly approached him, placing a hand on his shoulder from behind. “Happy Birthday, Adrien,” the boy turned around, his frown immediately flipping over into a bright smile. 

“Thank you, Father,” he said happily. “You have no idea how much it means to me that you actually want to sit down and spend some time with me.”

As Gabriel took his seat at the other end of the table, his eyes just couldn’t leave the now fifteen year old boy. Every year on this exact day, he was reminded of that small baby inside of a box. The one who just never wanted to let go. He looked over at their family portrait as Adrien rambled on about school and his friends. 

Every single day since Adrien had been born, Gabriel was reminded of how right Emilie had been. He was a fighter, that was for sure. Still, this day came with many other reminders as well. 

Oh, if only she had listened to him. 

**Author's Note:**

> I am sorry if this made anyone cry. I will be handing out tissues in the comments section if needed. Until next time!


End file.
